AGM 2007
Chairman's Report 2007
2007 was by far the most productive season for the club with the first team winning the Wetherby League Division 1 and also the Evening Cup. The second team maintained their position in Division 3 which was very pleasing as a number of junior players were used. Some fixtures were cancelled by the second team which is very disappointing given the way the club is moving and this is an area that I would like to see rectified as it does not give a good impression to others.
The first team was ably led by Adam Walton who can justifiably claim great credit for the team’s success. Often juggling both the batting and bowling, Adam enthused the players and was often first in the bar (and sometimes last) and created a team spirit that helped win the League. Lots of players produced good performances and it was a pleasure to be involved. Thanks also to John Cahill for being our regular scorer and always supporting the team.
The second team performed well when a “full side” was available and I believe the second team captaincy is an issue for tonight’s AGM.
The juniors have improved under the guidance of Tim Grogan and Paul Wilman who have been ably assisted by Jimmy Fernando and David Marshall. It is proposed to run 3 junior teams at under 11, 13 and 15 levels. This is a big commitment and anyone who can assist is asked to speak to Tim Grogan, Paul Wilman or Jimmy Fernando. A very successful summer holiday course was run with 56 youngsters partaking over 3 days. Special thanks to Thomas Love, Richard Grogan, Richard Love, Chris Lawson, Dave Marshall and Tommy Hudson. This is an area of club that both brings in young players and raises money and will be repeated again next year. We have agreed to assist Adam Walton and Jimmy Fernando to take the UKCC Level 2 coaching qualifications thereby growing our number of qualified coaches, a must with our growing junior section.
New players for all sides are sought and if we are to maintain momentum throughout the club we must attract new faces.
Behind the scenes lots of people have been involved in ensuring that we are able to exist and keep making improvements.
The ground is now the envy of many clubs and the work put in by John Cahill, Craig and Les Thornton along with Paul Baxter, under the guidance of Chris Horbury has improved immensely. Further improvements are to happen and we should not underestimate the “unseen hours” that have produced such a facility.
The committee have also accrued many hours and thanks must to go to the following;
Helen Dean – Treasurer, Paul Wilman – Vice Chairman, Chris Horbury – Secretary, Sheila Seymour – Assistant Secretary, Sue Hudson – Club Child Welfare Officer, Tim Grogan – Juniors, Jo Grogan 100 club, Cheryl and Paul Baxter – BBQ kings! There are lots of jobs done by too few people and all of the above people have helped in all areas such as teas, junior set up etc. Congratulations once again to Paul and Cheryl for the Club persons of the Year Award for their BBQs each Sunday morning during junior fixtures when many people came to the club for breakfast. Paul and Cheryl raised a significant amount of money for which we a re very grateful. To all who helped out a sincere thank you.
The clubs 6 a side day proved very popular. Blessed with good weather and willing helpers the day raised some £1200 and proved that cricket can be at the centre of village life. This was certainly a day to build on for the future.
At the time of writing the sale of the ground is almost complete. Church Fenton Parish Council has agreed to purchase the facilities and place a “deed of dedication” on the ground. We through our solicitor have asked that a 125 year lease is produced as this should enable us to seek/secure funding for future projects. The parish Council through the leadership of Andy Wharton has been most helpful and thanks go to the Harrison family for enabling the purchase of the ground. When the purchase of the ground is complete it is the wish of the committee to look at extending the pavilion towards the scoreboard creating two new changing areas along with showers and toilet facilities. It is proposed that the old changing room’s inner walls will then be removed to create a large area which we be refurbished and along with new toilets and a servery area which will enable us to create a social area that will cater for the future needs of the club. With various dinners and fundraising activities due to take place we are going to be asking the same people to contribute to the club and further information about fundraising will be given as and when it is deemed necessary.
I would like to personally thank Mark Moorhouse for all his previous efforts as Chairman and also for the way he has found to annoy us all from his armchair - via the club website (only joking Mark). The web site has been a great success and we would encourage all members to browse the site as next year Mark hopes to put even more information onto the various pages.
Finally thanks to all the tea ladies, supporters and sponsors, in particular to Sue and Nigel at the White Horse for all their support and hospitality!
Jim Love – Chairman CFCC
General Secretaries Report 2007
I believe all Club secretarial/correspondence matters were carried out to a satisfactory standard during the year. The role of secretary is to ensure that lines of communications within the club are in place. However, we can improve what we are doing at present.
We keep in touch with Club members via e-mail and text messages, as the telephone takes a backseat. These methods of communication are for most people the norm now, but not everyone, we therefore need to be aware of the needs of all club members!
I have personally favoured texting Club members, as it is such a useful way of keeping in touch, I will however be making more use of e-mail in the future!
We have not sent out a ‘newsletter’ in the last year, however Mark’s Club website has been full of information and statistics, if on occasions he touched a few nerves from the comfort of his home!!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sheila Seymour for taking ‘minutes’ at meetings and circulating them so speedily! She will be missed by her colleagues on the general committee. I hope Sheila will continue with the Club archives/history work, something we all enjoy looking at.… Another method of providing information to members young and old!
The chairman, will no doubt tell you about the proposed changes in the management of the Wetherby League. ‘Minutes’ of the meetings, agenda’s etc will be sent out via e-mail in the future?!?!
It will be very helpful in the running of the Cricket Club if we can update e-mail addresses and mobile numbers, also adding to those we currently hold, with individual Club Members permission.
Any suggestions regarding how you would like to receive information/news would be gratefully received.
Chris Horbury
Groundsman’s Report 2007
In another year of changing weather patterns we started the season in good weather with a firm playing surface, this situation continued until the ‘deluge’ which flooded the ground to a greater extent than I have seen before. Due to the efforts of several Club members (Including the Aussies!) we managed to keep playing cricket!
The flooding, even though exceptional, did make me think that we should look to put some more drainage in the outfield at the roadside of the ground. I.e. halfway from the end of the square to the boundary, there are several ‘flat spots’ on the outfield and it is essential that we monitor this and consider levelling in the near future, a job that cannot be undertaken without considerable thought and planning.
It became apparent during the season that the pitches were playing lower than in previous years. I would not have been comfortable carrying on as your groundsman unless an action plan to improve the playing surfaces was in place.
Keith Boyce (ex Headingley groundsman) and Steve Hardwick (Aitkens technical adviser) both visited the ground in September and offered advice on how we might improve ball bounce. KB said the soil samples taken were quite poor, and not ideal for preparing good quality cricket pitches!! However, there was no complaint about the work that had been done.
On advice I have reverted to Club loam, in preference to County loam, and doubled the amount of grass seed used. I intend to have the square deep spiked when the ground softens!?!? Deep Spiking should stimulate root growth, helping to relieve compaction and aid drainage. I hope the action taken will give better playing surfaces next season.
The quality and amount of cricket being played at Church Fenton at all levels demands the best playing surfaces we can provide.
Looking ahead, I suggest a three year plan, (in addition to the improvement to Clubhouse facilities) this will include a new ground entrance, additional car parking, an increase to the size of the ground and the laying of at least two new pitches.
Levelling off the square and bowlers ends, also providing a grass netting facility off square, and as previously mentioned some levelling of the outfield.
I would like to thank Paul Wilman for obtaining matting for the practice nets also Tom Hudson and Thomas Love for preparing the net area and winning a net from Lordswood cricket school!!
My grateful thanks go out to Les Thornton, Paul Baxter, John Cahill and Craig Thornton for all the work they did at the ground during the season, the club could not have had a better team, the ground has never looked so good. I have to mention Craig again for not only maintaining all the machinery at the ground but also to cutting the outfield to a very high standard.
Thanks also go to Andrew Marshall for several jobs he did, a worker without equal in my book.
It was good to see a number of players working at the ground at different times, including Adam Walton, first team skipper who is a dab hand at marking pitches out!
I would also like to thank Jim Love for his continued support, and his realistic approach to what can be achieved on the playing surface without major surgery!!
For The Future
In support of the autumn work that has been done, it has been recommended that our spring (heavy) rolling starts as early as February 2008, weather permitting.
It is intended that we have an additional junior side in 2008. We therefore, must be prepared for the ground to be in use 7 days a week, through April to July at least. There will inevitably be significant wear and tear on the square, I hope therefore to try and reduce practice times on the square!
I intend to introduce an additional pitch at the end of the square trans-side in 2008, this pitch could be used for practice and junior matches.
All junior cricket will be played at the ends of the square. I am also considering the first team playing on the middle four pitches exclusively in 2008, to see how this works for a trial period. This does not mean inferior pitches for the second team, every pitch prepared will be the best we can provide.
As your long-distance groundsman I would ask for any help you can provide, an hour here and there will be gratefully received by me.
Finally, I know a number of Club members would like to see better pitches (so would I!!) A number of Club members say they are happy as they are, I know the pitches could be better, if we are able to achieve a better standard of pitch and ball bounce, we lose that unique ‘home’ advantage, it might therefore be to the advantage of the away sides too, but I can assure you that is no reason not to strive to do better.
Chris Horbury
2007 was by far the most productive season for the club with the first team winning the Wetherby League Division 1 and also the Evening Cup. The second team maintained their position in Division 3 which was very pleasing as a number of junior players were used. Some fixtures were cancelled by the second team which is very disappointing given the way the club is moving and this is an area that I would like to see rectified as it does not give a good impression to others.
The first team was ably led by Adam Walton who can justifiably claim great credit for the team’s success. Often juggling both the batting and bowling, Adam enthused the players and was often first in the bar (and sometimes last) and created a team spirit that helped win the League. Lots of players produced good performances and it was a pleasure to be involved. Thanks also to John Cahill for being our regular scorer and always supporting the team.
The second team performed well when a “full side” was available and I believe the second team captaincy is an issue for tonight’s AGM.
The juniors have improved under the guidance of Tim Grogan and Paul Wilman who have been ably assisted by Jimmy Fernando and David Marshall. It is proposed to run 3 junior teams at under 11, 13 and 15 levels. This is a big commitment and anyone who can assist is asked to speak to Tim Grogan, Paul Wilman or Jimmy Fernando. A very successful summer holiday course was run with 56 youngsters partaking over 3 days. Special thanks to Thomas Love, Richard Grogan, Richard Love, Chris Lawson, Dave Marshall and Tommy Hudson. This is an area of club that both brings in young players and raises money and will be repeated again next year. We have agreed to assist Adam Walton and Jimmy Fernando to take the UKCC Level 2 coaching qualifications thereby growing our number of qualified coaches, a must with our growing junior section.
New players for all sides are sought and if we are to maintain momentum throughout the club we must attract new faces.
Behind the scenes lots of people have been involved in ensuring that we are able to exist and keep making improvements.
The ground is now the envy of many clubs and the work put in by John Cahill, Craig and Les Thornton along with Paul Baxter, under the guidance of Chris Horbury has improved immensely. Further improvements are to happen and we should not underestimate the “unseen hours” that have produced such a facility.
The committee have also accrued many hours and thanks must to go to the following;
Helen Dean – Treasurer, Paul Wilman – Vice Chairman, Chris Horbury – Secretary, Sheila Seymour – Assistant Secretary, Sue Hudson – Club Child Welfare Officer, Tim Grogan – Juniors, Jo Grogan 100 club, Cheryl and Paul Baxter – BBQ kings! There are lots of jobs done by too few people and all of the above people have helped in all areas such as teas, junior set up etc. Congratulations once again to Paul and Cheryl for the Club persons of the Year Award for their BBQs each Sunday morning during junior fixtures when many people came to the club for breakfast. Paul and Cheryl raised a significant amount of money for which we a re very grateful. To all who helped out a sincere thank you.
The clubs 6 a side day proved very popular. Blessed with good weather and willing helpers the day raised some £1200 and proved that cricket can be at the centre of village life. This was certainly a day to build on for the future.
At the time of writing the sale of the ground is almost complete. Church Fenton Parish Council has agreed to purchase the facilities and place a “deed of dedication” on the ground. We through our solicitor have asked that a 125 year lease is produced as this should enable us to seek/secure funding for future projects. The parish Council through the leadership of Andy Wharton has been most helpful and thanks go to the Harrison family for enabling the purchase of the ground. When the purchase of the ground is complete it is the wish of the committee to look at extending the pavilion towards the scoreboard creating two new changing areas along with showers and toilet facilities. It is proposed that the old changing room’s inner walls will then be removed to create a large area which we be refurbished and along with new toilets and a servery area which will enable us to create a social area that will cater for the future needs of the club. With various dinners and fundraising activities due to take place we are going to be asking the same people to contribute to the club and further information about fundraising will be given as and when it is deemed necessary.
I would like to personally thank Mark Moorhouse for all his previous efforts as Chairman and also for the way he has found to annoy us all from his armchair - via the club website (only joking Mark). The web site has been a great success and we would encourage all members to browse the site as next year Mark hopes to put even more information onto the various pages.
Finally thanks to all the tea ladies, supporters and sponsors, in particular to Sue and Nigel at the White Horse for all their support and hospitality!
Jim Love – Chairman CFCC
General Secretaries Report 2007
I believe all Club secretarial/correspondence matters were carried out to a satisfactory standard during the year. The role of secretary is to ensure that lines of communications within the club are in place. However, we can improve what we are doing at present.
We keep in touch with Club members via e-mail and text messages, as the telephone takes a backseat. These methods of communication are for most people the norm now, but not everyone, we therefore need to be aware of the needs of all club members!
I have personally favoured texting Club members, as it is such a useful way of keeping in touch, I will however be making more use of e-mail in the future!
We have not sent out a ‘newsletter’ in the last year, however Mark’s Club website has been full of information and statistics, if on occasions he touched a few nerves from the comfort of his home!!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sheila Seymour for taking ‘minutes’ at meetings and circulating them so speedily! She will be missed by her colleagues on the general committee. I hope Sheila will continue with the Club archives/history work, something we all enjoy looking at.… Another method of providing information to members young and old!
The chairman, will no doubt tell you about the proposed changes in the management of the Wetherby League. ‘Minutes’ of the meetings, agenda’s etc will be sent out via e-mail in the future?!?!
It will be very helpful in the running of the Cricket Club if we can update e-mail addresses and mobile numbers, also adding to those we currently hold, with individual Club Members permission.
Any suggestions regarding how you would like to receive information/news would be gratefully received.
Chris Horbury
Groundsman’s Report 2007
In another year of changing weather patterns we started the season in good weather with a firm playing surface, this situation continued until the ‘deluge’ which flooded the ground to a greater extent than I have seen before. Due to the efforts of several Club members (Including the Aussies!) we managed to keep playing cricket!
The flooding, even though exceptional, did make me think that we should look to put some more drainage in the outfield at the roadside of the ground. I.e. halfway from the end of the square to the boundary, there are several ‘flat spots’ on the outfield and it is essential that we monitor this and consider levelling in the near future, a job that cannot be undertaken without considerable thought and planning.
It became apparent during the season that the pitches were playing lower than in previous years. I would not have been comfortable carrying on as your groundsman unless an action plan to improve the playing surfaces was in place.
Keith Boyce (ex Headingley groundsman) and Steve Hardwick (Aitkens technical adviser) both visited the ground in September and offered advice on how we might improve ball bounce. KB said the soil samples taken were quite poor, and not ideal for preparing good quality cricket pitches!! However, there was no complaint about the work that had been done.
On advice I have reverted to Club loam, in preference to County loam, and doubled the amount of grass seed used. I intend to have the square deep spiked when the ground softens!?!? Deep Spiking should stimulate root growth, helping to relieve compaction and aid drainage. I hope the action taken will give better playing surfaces next season.
The quality and amount of cricket being played at Church Fenton at all levels demands the best playing surfaces we can provide.
Looking ahead, I suggest a three year plan, (in addition to the improvement to Clubhouse facilities) this will include a new ground entrance, additional car parking, an increase to the size of the ground and the laying of at least two new pitches.
Levelling off the square and bowlers ends, also providing a grass netting facility off square, and as previously mentioned some levelling of the outfield.
I would like to thank Paul Wilman for obtaining matting for the practice nets also Tom Hudson and Thomas Love for preparing the net area and winning a net from Lordswood cricket school!!
My grateful thanks go out to Les Thornton, Paul Baxter, John Cahill and Craig Thornton for all the work they did at the ground during the season, the club could not have had a better team, the ground has never looked so good. I have to mention Craig again for not only maintaining all the machinery at the ground but also to cutting the outfield to a very high standard.
Thanks also go to Andrew Marshall for several jobs he did, a worker without equal in my book.
It was good to see a number of players working at the ground at different times, including Adam Walton, first team skipper who is a dab hand at marking pitches out!
I would also like to thank Jim Love for his continued support, and his realistic approach to what can be achieved on the playing surface without major surgery!!
For The Future
In support of the autumn work that has been done, it has been recommended that our spring (heavy) rolling starts as early as February 2008, weather permitting.
It is intended that we have an additional junior side in 2008. We therefore, must be prepared for the ground to be in use 7 days a week, through April to July at least. There will inevitably be significant wear and tear on the square, I hope therefore to try and reduce practice times on the square!
I intend to introduce an additional pitch at the end of the square trans-side in 2008, this pitch could be used for practice and junior matches.
All junior cricket will be played at the ends of the square. I am also considering the first team playing on the middle four pitches exclusively in 2008, to see how this works for a trial period. This does not mean inferior pitches for the second team, every pitch prepared will be the best we can provide.
As your long-distance groundsman I would ask for any help you can provide, an hour here and there will be gratefully received by me.
Finally, I know a number of Club members would like to see better pitches (so would I!!) A number of Club members say they are happy as they are, I know the pitches could be better, if we are able to achieve a better standard of pitch and ball bounce, we lose that unique ‘home’ advantage, it might therefore be to the advantage of the away sides too, but I can assure you that is no reason not to strive to do better.
Chris Horbury
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